BREAKING NEWS: Manson family killer Leslie Van Houten, 73, is released from prison after serving 53

[GtHawk]

YEP. She ought to have lost the right to be suckin air back in the 70s.

Consider the cost of keeping her incarcerated all this time... so giving her an extra hole back then would have been a twofer.

Liberals have been denying the peoples will to have a death penalty in fact in California for decades.

[sneakypete]

Or, being nineteen years old and doing LSD & mushrooms at the time, she may have sincerely turned her life around.

Just throwing it out there....   

@DCPatriot

I  can  agree that she was clearly  out of her mind and just following orders when the murders happened,but that is irrelevant at this point.

What IS relevant is that she has not made a decision of her own since she decided to leave her parents home and go live with "the hippies". Even then she screwed it up  by moving in with radical communists,NOT hippies.

I have no reason to believe her decision-making skills are even as good now as they were when she was 18.

She is the human equivalent of a mindless sheep. She needs to go back to  prison for her own good because  she understands how that  works.

[mystery-ak]

She wasn't the getaway driver..she wasn't even an onlooker..Leslie was a willing participant in murdering the La Biancas...she stabbed Rosemary 16 times in the stomach and left the fork in her stomach.

She should have been executed but got life...to me..life is life and she should still be incarcerated. I don't understand the sympathy she is receiving.

I guess no one remembers or they weren't born yet. 

btw I don't care if she was on drugs..even after caught and on trial she professed her love for Charlie by carving a swastika in her forehead.

[sneakypete]

YEP. She ought to have lost the right to be suckin air back in the 70s.

Consider the cost of keeping her incarcerated all this time... so giving her an extra hole back then would have been a twofer.

@roamer_1

I could be wrong,but I strongly SUSPECT a large part of that was to scare others into  not following into her footsteps. As scary  as dying CAN be,and how many teenagers even think it is even possible for THEM to die,the idea is to hand out harsh sentences for harsh crimes to discourage others.

The Manson Family being given life in prison with no parole definitely  sent a message to some people,and it's not like they were the only ones in prison or that prison only housed them.

BTW,am I the only  one that thinks that only a small percentage of the population today  would be as shocked at what they did as was shocked by it back then?

I  definitely think we have lost a lot of moral ground over the years.

[berdie]

In a way, it's her final punishment to try to live in the free world.

[Idiot]

In a way, it's her final punishment to try to live in the free world.

I pray she gets her spiritual life in order.

[bigheadfred]

@roamer_1

I could be wrong,but I strongly SUSPECT a large part of that was to scare others into  not following into her footsteps. As scary  as dying CAN be,and how many teenagers even think it is even possible for THEM to die,the idea is to hand out harsh sentences for harsh crimes to discourage others.

The Manson Family being given life in prison with no parole definitely  sent a message to some people,and it's not like they were the only ones in prison or that prison only housed them.

BTW,am I the only  one that thinks that only a small percentage of the population today  would be as shocked at what they did as was shocked by it back then?

I  definitely think we have lost a lot of moral ground over the years.

I think with all the mass murders happening people have become desensitized to them and don't pay that much attention to them.

[mystery-ak]

I suggest those here who were too young at the time is to order Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi who was the lead prosecutor you may change your mind about this *poor* woman. When this happened the whole country was on edge until they were caught...we all followed the trial everyday and then the talk shows would discuss it in the evening...

Your local library may have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Helter-Skelter-Story-Manson-Murders/dp/0393322238

[mystery-ak]

I think with all the mass murders happening people have become desensitized to them and don't pay that much attention to them.

It wasn't that way back then....we were all terrified.

[mountaineer]

I pray she gets her spiritual life in order.

Susan Atkins did - before she died of brain cancer. Supposedly, Charles Watson has, as well. I don't know about Van Houten or Krenwinkel.

[bigheadfred]

It wasn't that way back then....we were all terrified.

I was only about eight when they happened and didn't really pay it much mind until I read the book.

When these murders happened there was a quadruple murder here just outside the town we were living in. A hippy from Cali shot four migrants who were sitting in a car drinking beer on a back road. Within a couple of miles from where we lived. Hopped up on drugs. No real motive. THAT really put the fear in the locals. Hippies were really discouraged from doing anything in the county other than passing through.

[Cyber Liberty]

I suggest those here who were too young at the time is to order Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi who was the lead prosecutor you may change your mind about this *poor* woman. When this happened the whole country was on edge until they were caught...we all followed the trial everyday and then the talk shows would discuss it in the evening...

Your local library may have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Helter-Skelter-Story-Manson-Murders/dp/0393322238

Bugliosi did a TV adaptation, IIRC.

[mountaineer]

Bugliosi did a TV adaptation, IIRC.

Yes. I remember reading it while I was babysitting one night. I was scared to death that some hippy nutcases would break in.

[mystery-ak]

Bugliosi did a TV adaptation, IIRC.

Yes..he was all over the networks...

[berdie]

I think with all the mass murders happening people have become desensitized to them and don't pay that much attention to them.

I agree. There is so much madness going on. I can't understand why people have become so mean and crazy.

[mystery-ak]

The authorities were never sure that the Tate and LaBianco murders were the only ones.

One thing the group liked to do was break into homes and crawl around the house and watch people sleep...they called this *creep crawlers*...then they would just leave...

[Cyber Liberty]

Yes. I remember reading it while I was babysitting one night. I was scared to death that some hippy nutcases would break in.

The TV adaptation was obviously watered down.

[roamer_1]

@roamer_1

I could be wrong,but I strongly SUSPECT a large part of that was to scare others into  not following into her footsteps. As scary  as dying CAN be,and how many teenagers even think it is even possible for THEM to die,the idea is to hand out harsh sentences for harsh crimes to discourage others.

The Manson Family being given life in prison with no parole definitely  sent a message to some people,and it's not like they were the only ones in prison or that prison only housed them.

BTW,am I the only  one that thinks that only a small percentage of the population today  would be as shocked at what they did as was shocked by it back then?

I  definitely think we have lost a lot of moral ground over the years.

@sneakypete

Nothing scares people like a firing squad, or a public hanging... As is proven in the rise of crime as death sentences dwindled. Now it's half a lifetime caught up in the courts, and a good likelihood the other half will either be life in prison, or out on parole. You have to be an unborn baby to become a sanctioned state execution anymore.

Nowadays, murder is a seven year hitch, if it is not a hate crime, or with some heinous extenuating circumstance. They call it a life sentence, but they don't mean it. Criminals, being opportunists, will take that bet, thinking they can beat the system.

It has to be hard and fast - You kill somebody, and we'll kill you back... And soon.

THEN violent crimes would go back down to nearly none.